Last Friday’s Dance Labs featured a variety of student-choreographed performances from Choreographic Elements, the THDA 365 class taught by Erin Strong, Chair and Instructor in Dance.
The different choreographies involved techniques and styles that the students have been learning throughout the term. Many of the dancers showcased recurring themes in their dance by implementing “canons,” or synchronized wave-like arm movements.
“Choreographing is like writing a paper or composing a piece of music, where one comes up with a thesis, or a motif that one develops and keeps returning to,” said Strong.
In an evening dominated by classical and ballet-style dances, Jorge Piccole ’14 took bold, creative license and choreographed a dance with hip-hop moves involving pop-lock movements.
“I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to work with the new dancers and choreographers, and I hope to blend their unique ideas and styles with mine to improve with my own style and dance, and to create novel dances,” wrote Piccole in an e-mail to The Phillipian.
Janice Cheon ’16 presented a calmer, more traditional duet featuring delicate leaping movements accompanied by subtle arm gestures,
According to Cheon, her choreography was originally inspired by the piece “La Plus Que Lente” by Claude Debussy.
“I started choreographing solely based on the music and its structure. However, after the first showing of the dance, I slowly began to drift towards representing the mood of the music through movement. I eventually decided to create a semblance of a plot about forgetting a memory to achieve that,” said Cheon.
“I was amazed to know that the choreography were mostly done by the students. I have some friends who worked in the dance labs, and I know they spent a lot of time this term to prepare for this show. They did a great job,” said Joyce Wang ’15.
“Some of the dances were really powerful. You can see through the movements and see the intended emotions behind it,” said Piccole.
According to Piccole, one of his personal favorites was the dance featuring Rochelle Wilbun ’13, Suzanne Wang ’13 and Elizabeth McGonagall ’16. Choreographed by Wilbun, the dance was inspired by jazz and hip-hop that had a serious, mysterious tone to it. The choice of music, “Sail” by AWOLNATION, complimented the synchronized and individual dancing.
